Introduction

After seeing this concept online (Fig.01), I decided to have a go at re-creating it in 3D. I usually do hard surface objects and not character/organic objects so I fancied the challenge. The character was quite a simple design but I thought I could get a lot out of creating it in 3D.

Fig. 01

Initially I wanted to create the mesh from scratch in ZBrush, using ZSpheres, but after several attempts I wasn't getting the results I wanted and so I decided to do my base mesh in Maya instead (Fig.02 & Fig.03).

Fig. 02

Fig. 03

Next I created UVs for the character (Fig.04). I tried hard to use as much of the UV window as possible as I knew I was going to be rendering out the image at 4000x4000 pixels and so the detail had to hold up.

Fig. 04

So I took my UV'd base mesh into ZBrush and started sculpting (Fig.05). I subdivided my base mesh eight times, resulting in a 16 million poly mesh. I used mainly the clay brush and the damian standard brush (which is a downloadable brush from the ZBrush website and is a combination of the standard and pinch brushes. This brush is excellent for carving out large areas of detail).

Fig. 05

I continued shaping the mesh and increasing the sub divisions. At about level six onwards, I started using the drag rectangle on a displacement brush with various alpha maps (Fig.06 - Fig.08).